Frans-jozef and Sarah van Seumeren at CeMAT 2018

New forklift seating maker Trône Seats is meeting with OEMs after showing its first prototype at CeMAT earlier this year.

Trône is the brainchild of Frans-jozef van Seumeren, who developed vast experience in electronic seating through his company, SAVAS Seating, which he sold to Be-Ge Industri in 2014.

"Long-term sitting is not very good for your body," he tells Forkliftaction News. "Sitting on a truck with a lot of vibrations in a small cabin is really bad for your health."

Van Seumeren used the downtime after his "retirement" to contemplate this challenge and came up with a highly adjustable seat. "Our seat has more adjustments than any other truck seat. A very new adjustment on a truck seat is the tilt of the seat," he explains, adding that this accommodates "people with long and short legs".

The seat comes with four electric motors which can be operated via the intuitive button operation on the side of the chair. The controls allow forward/reverse adjustments, backrest inclination, seat length adjustment and seat tilt. An optional fifth motor controls lumbar support.

The Trône team took a prototype with additional lumbar support to Hannover to seek feedback from potential partners and end-users. "In terms of the overall design, people were very surprised," van Seumeren says. "We want the seat to be good looking, modern and safe (in contrast with current technology that dates back 40 years in some cases)."

One change already being implemented is eliminating the memory function from the electronic seat. It appears most users don't need multiple seating positions for each forklift, and this means simplifying the design and cutting costs.

Going forward, Trône has the option of chasing OEMs, but it also has lots of interest in retrofitting its seats in its home market in the Netherlands. "We also found a number of potential dealers (at CEMAT)," he adds.